Choose one painting for your wall ...

Yep, that be my Little Mo, the most wonderful child in this universe or the next.

Thank you!

awwwwwwwwwww, proud mum!

I like the candidness (is there such a word? ) of the photographs, boomerang, & your compositions. I'm also very partial to B&W photography, too. Not that there's anything wrong with colour, but there's something about B&W that's really compelling.

I agree, msolga. I also prefer black and white movies. I can't say why. I just saw the Chinese action-mystery film, Hero. The color was brilliant, but I still prefer a black and white Hitchcock film, or Casa Blanca. But I prefer color paintings to charcoal drawings. Why is color so important in art but not in films (at least for me)? One possibility, off the top of my head, is that film cannot (or does not) exploit the possibilities for SUBTLETY in coloring that is seen in painting.

Hmm, I'm thinking about that JLN. Interesting.

a good point and one that i try to get my 'beginner' students to understand when they want to work from photographs - there are also the burnt out highlights and 'black hole' darks to deal with. With black and white film you can dodge and burn and retain detail in these areas whilst keeping the tonal value - good b&w photos are beautiful i agree.


but whilst i do admit i like paintings better, i do love charcoal drawings

john lancaster

this is the website of one of my tutors at uni - I love his charcoal drawings.

Olga, Thanks for the Irises. Lovely.

Roberta

I've been looking for a virtual gift of "cat Art" for you, given that you couldn't post yours. I don't know whether Renoir is your cup of tea or not, but check out the look on the cat's face! Is that the cat that got the cream or what?

By the way, that Renoir came from a great site called "Cats in Art". If you're a cat/art lover & haven't already been there, it's well worth a visit.

http://www.netserves.com/gallery/catsartx.htm

and here's a Gwen John

Oooooooooooh, that's wonderful, Vivien!

I hope you liked those, Roberta.

For those who may have missed it the first time..

Cats in Literature and Art

JLN

Still thinking about the preference for B&W, particularly in photographs. I'm not sure why, but there's something so authorative, so complete & resolved in a good B&W photograph. (Like the beautiful photograph of Virginia Woolf below.) Maybe we've been conditioned by newspapers & associate B&W images with factual recording of events, people, I really don't know. I'm still thinking ....



But speaking of the use of colour in painting ... I just watched Paul Cox's film, Vincent, tonight. Just exquisite, & so moving. The way Vincent talked about the beauty of the colour yellow, & how he used it to such striking effect in his Arles paintings, his sun flowers ... The combination of his words & his painted images was just spell binding. These paintings were such a contrast to his earlier, dark peasant paintings like the Potato Eaters.

Anyway, I think I've digressed from the topic of the thread ....

I hope you'll indulge further digression into the b/w v. color idea....

I have a thread open right now called "Who would you want to hang out with?" where I talk about my favorite photographer - Mary Ellen Mark. She usually photographs in black and white and her photos are startling documents. She did do one series in color, an photo essay on the prostitues of Bombay and the color is just so essential to the work.

Another favorite photographer, David Seidner, work's would just not have the same lushness without the color. I couldn't find many images of his on line but here are a couple:

Those are beautiful, boomerang.

That is a beautiful photo-portrait of Woolf. Here she is as beautiful as her sister, the Bloomsbury painter, Vanessa Bell.

interesting photos boomerang - my favourite is Cartier Bresson - I love the way he waits for the 'moment' when everything is just right. His use of composition and light and often wit is wonderful.